Projected growth
WRI water stress
Region
Primary risks
The AI-water nexus: Data centers in water-stressed regions face growing supply constraints
Sources: Ceres, "Drained by Data" (September 2025); ICPRB, 2025 WMA Water Supply Study (December 2025); WRI Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas v4.0 (2023); IEA, "Energy and AI" (April 2025); Brookings Institution, "AI, Data Centers, and Water" (November 2025); SAGE Journals (2025); Frontier Group / JLARC (2024).
Notes: Growth projections reflect planned capacity buildout. WRI stress scores: 5.0 = Extremely High, 4.0 = High, 3.0 = Medium-High.
Phoenix, AZ
(United States)
Singapore
Querétaro
(Mexico)
Johannesburg
(South Africa)
Northern Virginia
(United States)
Amsterdam
(Netherlands)
~870% (all planned capacity)
+300 MW new capacity approved
Rapid expansion
(CBRE top-4 LatAm market)
~4x by 2035 (8% → 25% of WMA supply)
Constrained (~3% CAGR)
Largest African hub
(35+ facilities)
Extremely high
Extremely high
Extremely high
High
Medium-high
(seasonal)
Medium
— Colorado River allocation cuts — Basin stress +17%
— Water import dependency (Malaysia) — Regulatory constraints
— Eight of 12 aquifers overexploited — Community conflict
— Municipal infrastructure strain — Aging supply systems
— Potomac River peak-day shortfall risk by 2030
— Hyperscale ban (>70 MW) — Moratorium on new builds